PORTLAND, Ore. – Alaska Anchorage basketball player Alysa Horn and Simon Fraser track & field athlete Helen Crofts have been chosen as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference candidates for the 23rd annual NCAA Woman of the Year award, the league announced Tuesday.

The award honors senior student-athletes for their collegiate achievements in service, leadership, athletics and academics. Later this summer 30 finalists – 10 from each of the NCAA’s three divisions – will be named. The top nine – three each from Divisions I, II and III – will be honored at the 2013 NCAA Woman of the Year dinner in Indianapolis on Oct. 20.

Horn finished her basketball career with some of the best numbers in UAA history, posting top-10 career ranks in total points (1,134), rebounds (639), blocked shots (59) and three-pointers made (113).

The Kodiak native became just the fifth player in school history to achieve 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 50 blocks, averaged 15.4 points and 9.0 rebounds and also had 34 blocks and 44 steals in earning All-GNAC Second Team honors last winter.

Horn was also a standout in the classroom, compiling a 3.67 GPA in earning GNAC all-academic honors three times. She was also a seven-time selection to the UAA Dean’s List.

Crofts, from West Vancouver, British Columbia, had a spectacular career not only on the track, but also in the classroom at Simon Fraser, compiling a near-perfect 4.14 GPA in the Canadian system that awards 4.33 points for an A+ (as opposed to the U.S. system which awards a maximum of 4.00).

A biological science major with a concentration in cells, molecules and physiology, Crofts compiled the highest GPA at SFU in earning the Bill DeVries Award for excellence in academics and athletics.

She accomplished all that academically while also winning two national titles and four All-American awards during the 2013 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor national championships.

NOTE: Beginning in 2005-06, nominations for NCAA Woman of the Year were coordinated through conference offices. Prior to 2005-06, nominations were made individually by schools, with one winner named from each state. *Among 30 finalists.